Border Detention Cells Are So Cold, Migrants Call Them "Freezers"

About 65 people a day move through this Border Patrol station in Nogales, Ariz.

Peter O'Dowd
/ Fronteras

Fronteras: The undocumented family members of military personnel are set to have an easier time gaining legal status, thanks to a new federal policy. Navajo Nation casinos stimulate the economy, but at a cost. As the nation remembers the last tragic day of JFK's presidency, many Latinos of that era reflect on what he meant to their emerging political bloc. Migrants say Border Patrol dentition cells are dangerously cold, so cold they call them "freezers."

The Obama administration recently announced a major change to immigration policy with regards to the military. Now military spouses and children who are in the country illegally can stay here without fear of deportation and work towards permanent legal status.

But as Jude Joffe-Block reports, this new policy appears contradictory to an increasingly common practice in many branches of the military -- a practice that explicitly bans enlistment by people who have undocumented dependents. From the Fronteras Desk in Phoenix Jude Joffe-Block reports.

It has been five years since the Navajo Nation opened its first casino. For two decades the tribe resisted the lure of the quick money maker. They feared the social ills that tend to come with gaming -- compulsive gambling, alcoholism, crime and loss of culture. From the Changing America Desk in Flagstaff Laurel Morales takes a look at gaming’s impacts on the Navajo tribe.

As the nation remembers the last tragic day of John F. Kennedy’s presidency, many Latino voters of that era reflect on what the 35th president meant to their emerging political bloc. As David Martin Davies reports, JFK had a special connection to the Mexican American voter and his campaign helped create the Latino Democratic political coalition that still exist today.

A detention cell is not designed to be comfortable, but human rights groups and migrants who’ve crossed illegally into the United States say the conditions inside some U.S. Border Patrol stations have become unsafe.

From the Center for Investigative Reporting and The Fronteras Desk, Peter O’Dowd explains temperatures in some detention cells from Texas to Arizona are so low that migrants say it’s a form of punishment to keep them from crossing again.

*This story was co-reported by the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Rachael Bale.